Related papers: Entropy-driven phase behavior of associative polym…
Vitrimers are polymer networks that can undergo bond exchange reactions. They dynamically rearrange their structures while maintaining their overall integrity, thus resulting in unique properties such as self-healing, reprocessability,…
We study theoretically a model system of a transient network of microemulsion droplets connected by telechelic polymers and explain recent experimental findings. Despite the absence of any specific interactions between either the droplets…
Associative polymer networks have shown a major promise in fabrication of self-healing and responsive materials. The can also serve as simple models to study more complex biological systems where transient interactions play an important…
Here, we provide an overview of theoretical approaches to semiflexible polymers and their networks. Such semiflexible polymers have large bending rigidities that can compete with the entropic tendency of a chain to crumple up into a random…
We analyze the interaction of two conducting, charged polymer chains in solution using a minimal model for their electronic degrees of freedom. We show that a crossing of the two chains in which the polymers pass within Angstroms of each…
Using molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate the aggregation behavior of neutral stiff (rod-like) and flexible polymer chains mediated by attractive crowders. Attractive crowders serve as bridging agents, inducing aggregation…
The behavior of mobile linkers connecting two semi-flexible charged polymers, such as polyvalent counterions connecting DNA or F-actin chains, is studied theoretically. The chain bending rigidity induces an effective repulsion between…
The dynamical properties and mechanical functions of amorphous materials are governed by their microscopic structures, particularly the elasticity of the interaction networks, which is generally complicated by structural heterogeneity. This…
We study the structure and dynamics of a transient network composed of droplets of microemulsion connected by telechelic polymers. The polymer induces a bridging attraction between droplets without changing their shape. A viscoelastic…
Reversible crosslinking is a design paradigm for polymeric materials, wherein they are microscopically reinforced with chemical species that form transient crosslinks between the polymer chains. Besides the potential for self-healing,…
Single-chain nanoparticles (SCNP) are a new class of bio and soft-matter polymeric objects in which a fraction of the monomers are able to form equivalently intra- or inter-polymer bonds. Here we numerically show that a fully-entropic…
We investigate theoretically the effect of polymer tension on the collective behavior of reversibly binding cross-links. For this purpose, we employ a model of two weakly bending wormlike chains aligned in parallel by a tensile force, with…
We investigate the folding and forced-unbinding transitions of adsorbed semiflexible polymer chains using theory and simulations. These processes describe biologically relevant phenomena that include adhesive interactions between proteins…
The coupled dynamics of entangled polymers which span a broad time and length scales govern the unique viscoelastic properties of polymers. To follow chain mobility by numerical simulations from the intermediate Rouse and reptation regimes…
We investigate the cooperative effects of a single finite chain of monomers near an attractive substrate by first constructing a conformational pseudo-phase diagram based on the thermal fluctuations of energetic and structural quantities.…
Associative polymers (APs) with reversible, specific interactions between ``sticker'' sites exhibit a phase behavior that depends on a delicate balance between distinct contributions controlling the binding. For highly-bonded systems, it is…
We analyze the structural behavior of a single polymer chain grafted to an attractive, flexible surface. Our model is composed of a coarse-grained bead-and-spring polymer and a tethered membrane. By means of extensive parallel tempering…
Modeling of polymer chains has received a lot of attention in mathematics. In fact, probabilistic models that naturally arise in statistical mechanics have been widely studied by mathematicians for the very challenging and novel problems…
Adding dynamic bonds in polymer networks enables reprocessing and recycling; however the full impact of reversible bonds on dynamic network mechanics remains unclear. We build model dynamic networks and observe substantial deviations from…
Polymers with active segments constitute prospective future materials and are used as a model for some biological systems such as chromatin. The directions of the active forces are typically introduced with temporal or spatial correlations…